This was our first time in Denver, and somehow, none of our friends who had lived in Denver or who had visited Denver had any solid food recommendations . . . so other than bison, I had basically zero idea what the area food scene was all about.
When we started out on the Downtown Denver Food Tour and our guide, Lisa, mentioned that our first stop was going to be the oldest established restaurant on the tour at a whopping . . . 11 years?! . . . I was kinda bummed, because I thought that maybe we were just going to be visiting restaurants that were hard up for business and said OK to being on a food tour because they could use the additional income.
I am happy to report that I was incorrect in this assumption. The reason we visited new-ish restaurants is because the Denver food scene is evolving and expanding, and exciting things are happening at restaurants that are just opening now, that are taking advantage of farm-to-table and nose-to-tail trends and building upon them, all to tasty results. And it was fun to experience a variety of these in one afternoon.
Lisa was the perfect guide: lively, considerate, and really easy to talk to. She has been in Denver for "only" 4 years, but as she pointed out, the Ballpark area has undergone phenomenal change within just the past 12 months, and no question our group asked went unanswered.
Highly recommended!